We debated on which train ride to do this weekend and ended up settling on the sightseeing train to Grandview. No one at work had even heard of it, but we finally figured out that it went partway down to Seward before turning back around. The full train ride was pretty long, so we managed to piece together different parts to see everything we wanted to, but not stay out so late that the kids were melting down.
We had breakfast at the house and then drove down to the Portage stop to catch the train. The train actually has two Portage stops because it goes Portage - Whittier - Portage - Spencer - Grandview. We caught it on the first stop for the morning portion of the ride because Thomas and Dad both wanted to go through the Whittier tunnel. I was so worried about missing the train that we were there with plenty of time to spare. Thomas was *mostly* patient waiting for the train.
As a side note, the full ride goes Anchorage - Girdwood - Portage - Whittier - Portage - Spencer - Grandview - Spencer - Portage - Whittier - Portage - Girdwood - Anchorage. Whew! That's a lot of stops!
And we're off! Thomas and I had the genius idea last night to bring along the engineer's hats for the ride. Plus a ton of their trains - we were prepared for a long day of train riding, no matter how entertained the boys were by the scenery!
Tunnel #1, a short one prior to the big Whittier one. Everyone was staring out the window at the gorgeous scenery when *boom* we're in a black tunnel. I managed to snap the photo while they were still all staring out. I thought it was hilarious! ;)
Henry was torn between whether the scenery was more exciting or his toy trains.
Here comes the Whittier Tunnel! Thomas is ready for it! He loves going through this tunnel and it is the first time he has been in the train for the ride.
We only had a short stop in Whittier and it was a bit rainOrr than anticipated - which means I didn't pack raincoats... Half the group decided to stay on board and half was up for a quick dash over to get food. Matt and I had gotten Frito Pies in Whittier before getting on the ferry to Valdez and they were amazing! I had gotten everyone all pumped up about them, but we didn't have much time, so we had to hoof it.
Does Henry look sad? He should look sad. Because there were no Frito Pies! Halfway down the (way longer than I remembered) walk, I got worried we weren't going to have time to get the food. So Heather took Henry and I ran ahead to order them. I *literally* ran! And I was 100' away when I realized the "Open" sign wasn't lit. Nooooooooooo!
No one else was devastated, but I certainly was. At least we didn't miss the train. And the onboard food was actually pretty good. Still a bummer. :(
Luckily, the onboard half had more success in their mission. Thomas had convinced his Grandpa to buy him a train book at Alyeska yesterday. Dad thought it would be fun to take the book with us and get the conductor and train engineers to autograph the book. The Alaska Railroad is super family friendly and everyone was happy to sign the book. I'm not sure if Thomas or my dad was more excited - either way it is an awesome memento for the day!
Back on board, Henry was ready for some food. Unsurprisingly, I brought raspberries for them to snack on! Henry was chowing down and dancing around.
Shortly followed by a crash. I made him lay down because I thought he looked tired. He fought me on falling asleep until the train started moving. Once we got going, he was asleep before we even made it back to the tunnel. So peaceful when he's asleep. :)
Back on the rails - and more tunnels! There was a series of 5 tunnels between Spencer and Grandview. Thomas did not lose any excitement for tunnels - no matter how many we went through!
The Placer River was roaring today!
Then we got to the switchbacks! The train has to gain some elevation pretty quickly, so there are a ton of curves and switchbacks. There were so many people taking photos out the windows in the cars that I was surprised to find only one other person taking photos from the open air vantage point between the cars. That guy and I kept taking turns to get photos of the train on the curves. This one was my favorite because of the big ARR emblem. You know - the one Thomas knows by heart! :)
Headed around the curve by Trail Glacier (I think) - I managed to time the photo to get the engine in the photo. I'm pretty sure the guy I was picture swapping with managed to get one in time as well. Team work wins!
Finally made it to Grandview! The train stops here long enough to get off the train and wander around for awhile. I was definitely ready to stretch my legs, so I grabbed Thomas and headed out to explore. Heather debated not going due to footwear, but apparently didn't want to be left behind - she caught up with us before we made it to the boardwalk. :)
We wandered up the trail that led up and away from the train. It looked so pretty nestled in the mountains. Those blue and yellow colors just look so nice in all of the green trees!
Wandering further up the mountains, someone said "Aren't those blueberries??" Jackpot! We finally found them! And we didn't have any containers to hold them! We decided to just go ahead and eat as many as we could. :)
Then Aunt Heather volunteered to hold the blueberries for us to get some back to the train. I had promised Thomas blueberry pancakes the day before and it looked like we could gather enough to make that a possibility tomorrow. On a side note - this boy is just as obsessed with blueberries as he is with raspberries.
The blueberries! In retrospect, there *may* have been blueberries yesterday since the berries on these bushes were a bit obscured under the leaves. Once we found them though - they were everywhere!
Oh and before we left the train they told us to look for blueberries, but also to be on the look out for bears since they like the berries too. And without the bear, they were just "Blueies!" So corny, but thankfully these were blueies! :)
What a successful day - trains, tunnels and blueberries!
Except one slight thing...
We got back to Portage, loaded up in the car and headed home. I promised Thomas a quick stop at the park in Girdwood, but we had about 15 minutes until we got there. Unfortunately before we could make it that far, the tire blew out on the Pilot...
I was super impressed by how well the Pilot handled losing the tire. And as much as the Seward Highway scares me, we got the car to a safe spot to change the car without incident. I was all ready to change the tire by myself, but Dad stepped in to do most of the work. Once a parent, always a parent!
All-in-all it wasn't a big deal, other than the fact that the Pilot has a tiny spare and I wasn't super comfortable with driving highway speeds on it. Luckily, the bad drivers on the highway worked in our favor - none of them wanted to drive the speed limit anyhow. Whew!
Although Thomas didn't get his park stop since we lost a lot of time changing the tire. We'll have to make up for it tomorrow!